Guess Who?
by juju0268
Summary: Belle thinks it might be fun to join Storybrooke's very own version of facebook; but she doesn't expect to be so vexed by a mysterious member who seems bent on making her experience anything but pleasant. As she tries to guess who this person could possibly be in her little town she accidently becomes acquainted with the town tyrant Cold Gold; but is he as chilly as he seems?


Belle sat with her finger posed over the accept button on her keyboard undecided. She had received an invitation to join the Storybrooke on-line chat forum. Everything from recipes to help with on-line dating was on it, all she had to do was click the accept tab. She drew her hand back momentarily and rubbed her fingers with her thumb as she considered her options. First and foremost no one would know it was her, everyone had pen names; hers was "A LADY". She had picked it up from one of her favorite authors Jane Austen. That had been her pen name at one time and Belle thought it suited her as well since she loved reading books and writing small stories of her own. It was accompanied with a picture of a quill and a jar of ink as her profile picture after all one had to be careful with putting ones picture on the internet, there were weirdos everywhere; even in the sleepy little town where she lived.. She decided to scroll along the pages and see if there was anything that caught her fancy.

_Things for sale and oooh, an advice column; that looked interesting_. Belle went ahead and hit the accept button when she saw the event tab had a discussion night on popular books, that would be something she'd like to join in on. She wondered what the book was and hit the event tab... _"Jane Eyre_", it couldn't have been more perfect; she loved the classics. She smiled as she hit join for that discussion as well.

There was so much to view as she tried to look over the members names, she noticed that no one gave their real names or pictures; they wanted as much anonymity as she did apparently. Belle smiled to herself, she wondered if she might guess anyone from their pen names; maybe later she'd try.

She scrolled along the various discussion groups and discovered on-line recipes, she clicked the tab and found a discussion going on about none other than the correct way to make baklava; a greek pastry that was her mother's favorite.

When she had been alive, Belle's mother had made some every Christmas; it an old family recipe that had been passed down from her grandmother; sadly Belle's Mom had died three years ago from cancer.

Belle watched with interest at the various comments that popped up rapidly on the screen; there seemed to be a disagreement between two of them.

_SPICY RED PEPPER: I DISAGREE, BAKLAVA IF IT IS MADE FROM THE ORIGINAL RECIPE USES HONEY FOR SWEETNER AND NEVER SUGAR._

Belle's brows raised at the comments of some of the group as they bantered back and forth as to what kind of sweeteners went into the delicious pastry. The person known as COOKING FURY seemed to be getting in a fury with another person who had a peculiar name to their pen: A.A. FAIR. Belle wondered who they where.

_A.A FAIR : SYRUP, WHICH BY THE WAY IS MADE OF SUGAR MY DEAR CAN BE USED; DONT UNDERESTIMATE THE TURKISH._

Turkish? That was the first time Belle had heard it called Turkish, she specifically remembered her mother saying it was a Greek pastry. She scrolled down as the two people continued to argue over sweeteners; whatever..

She clicked back to the previous book discussion to get the details and realized that it started in just a few hours; well she definitely wanted to sit in on that one. She turned off her computer, it was time to get back to work; her lunch break was over.

Working as Storybrooke's librarian for the last two years had been a dream come true. Belle had unlimited access to countless books and since she had moved out from beneath her controlling father, books had been Belle's best put on her coat and grabbed her purse before turning off the lights and locking the door of the library behind her. The street lights had came on and Belle watched the town of Storybrooke slowly close it's sleepy eyes as it prepared for night fall once more. She saw hardly no one on the way home except for a few children one of which was the Mayor's son sitting on a bench in town with a large book opened in his lap, he looked engrossed in it as he munched on an apple deep in concentration, unaware it seemed of the approaching dusk.

She passed the town psychiatrist Archie Hopper who waved at her as he walked Pongo, his rather large dalmatian who tugged gleefully at his leash trying to reach his destination of the boy Henry on the bench oblivious to the dog or it's owner walking his way. Belle smiled and gave them a friendly wave as she drove slowly through the main street. Her eyes roamed over each building and movement caught her eye as the local pawn broker and antiques dealer Mr. Gold closed the door to his own shop, tugging and locking it before turning his head toward Belle's car. Belle realized a moment too late that she had slowed down and was staring at the man as she passed. He seemed angry as he narrowed his eyes and poised her with a ballfull glare of his own telling her in no uncertain terms he had seen her rudeness and was not agreeable to her watching him.

Belle sped up as she passed him in a hurry to not look so obvious, her cheeks pinking up as she left the morose looking man in her rear view mirror.

Mr. Gold was not one to get in a bad humor with. He owned practically everything in town and seemed to always be in an ill mood. Belle had never really talked to him, his reputation preceding him of course as a highly unlikable man, besides that her father Moe French rented his building from the aloof antique dealer and her father hated the very ground he walked on so Belle decided a long time ago that she didn't want to tangle with the man termed as Cold Gold.

She had often seen him around town though, once she had stopped at Granny's for a bite to take home and had noticed him sitting in the back booth as he ate his dinner, immaculately dressed as always in a dark suit and tie; Belle wondered if he had any friends at all. She suspected not as Ruby the waitress at Granny's diner left his table and shot Belle a look that said it all as she brung him more ice, the man was an insufferable grump. Belle still wondered what lay behind that icy exterior though, she bet there was a story there.

She pulled into her driveway and turned off the motor to her little car. She picked up the paper from this morning still laying at the foot of her walkway before climbing the steps to her porch and into her house for the night.

After a shower and some more comfortable clothes she flipped her laptop open and heard the familiar humming of her computer as it came to life. She nestled down amongst her covers before the cute little happy faces of kittens that served as her desktop came into view, they always made Belle smile. She wished she had a kitten of her own sometimes but with her schedule she knew she had no time for pets; instead she had a small, peacock green male beta that she kept by her bed stand named Shakespeare who kept her company and didn't mind her work hours.

After checking her twenty some e-mails Belle clicked into the Storybrooke chat-line to see that she was a few minutes late and the book discussion had already started, apparently she wasn't the only person in the little hamlet of Storybrooke who liked classics and a big discussion was under way, or should she say debate; she gave a small unsatisfied _humph_ of displeasure as she recognized the familiar pen name; it was A.A. FAIR once again leading the discussion.

This time A.A. FAIR was downing her favorite character in one of her favorite books by one of her favorite authors; it was safe to say that A.A FAIR was not her favorite person on Storybrooke chat so far.

She watched the dialogue quietly, her mouth forming into a thin line as she stood by silently and watch this person complain about the character of Jane herself. Her mouth fell open as the person with the illusive name barked about how unrealistic her character was and how most likely she would have ended up in a convent or workhouse rather than being taken in by a family of a lone brother and two sisters who have most certainly been married off rather than turned into spinster governesses in that time. Belle hit her keys.

_A LADY: I DISAGREE, BEING AS THE AGE IT WAS, BEING A SPINSTER GOVERNESS WAS THE ONLY LOGICAL SOLUTION TO A WOMAN TRYING TO SCRATCH OUT A MEAGER LIVING IN A WORLD OF MEN THAT WASN'T ABOUT TO LET THEM CHOOSE A PROFESSION OTHER THAN GOVERNESS OR TEACHER, IN FACT I FOUND THE CHARACTER OF JANE VERY SPOT ON AND A HEROINE OF HER OWN LIFE._

There, that at least let the person know she wouldn't be bullied into such a narrow view of such a rich, interesting character and Belle wasn't about to sit there and let who ever it was run away with their fingers. She watched the screen, waiting for the rebuke and was surprised to the abrupt halt her opinion had caused; was no one going to respond? Belle bit her lip and found herself tapping her bare foot on the floor as she anxiously awaited the expected reply but all activity seemed to halt; where did everyone go, did she run them all off with only a few words? Then a sentence popped on the screen that made Belle growl; she couldn't believe the next words.

_A.A FAIR: WELL, OBVIOUSLY THAT_ _WOULD BE THE OPINION OF A LADY_.

"How dare he!" Belle found herself proclaiming to the screen before her. Well her suspicions had been layed to rest, A.A Fair was a man; figures.

Her fingers shook with agitation as she pounded her response to this obvious stuffed shirt along the keyboard ending it with an exclamation point for emphasis.

_A LADY: YES, IT MOST CERTAINLY IS AND IT IS BEEN MADE PERFECTLY CLEAR THAT YOU HAVE OBVIOUSLY BEEN SKIMMING THOUGH THE PAGES AT BEST OR CLOSER TO THE MARK I'LL WAGER, WATCHING THE MOVIE HOPING IT GOES CLOSELY ENOUGH WITH THE BOOK FOR YOU TO KEEP UP, DO US ALL A FAVOR AND TAKE THE TIME TO DELVE INTO THE CHARACTERS BEFORE YOU BASH THEM PUBLICALLY PERHAPS SOME OF US WOULD LIKE TO DISCUSS THE BOOK AND IT'S CHARACTERS CIVILLY AND WITH PERCEPTION RATHER THAN MERELY RANTING ABOUT MISPERCEIVED FAILINGS AS YOU SEEM TO BE DOING AT PRESENT._

Belle furiously worried her bottom lip with her teeth as she waited for a response, she would show him a thing or two. She decided to add a little more just because this person whoever he was had it coming.

_A LADY: AND BTW BAKLAVA IS A GREEK PASTRY; DONT THINK I DIDN'T SEE YOUR OTHER RAVINGS EARLIER AS YOU MISTAKENLY LABELED IT AS_ _TURKISH. ALTHOUGH THIS ISNT THE PLACE TO BE SETTING_ _THE RECORD STRAIGHT ON THAT SUBJECT I DO ADMIT_. :}

She hoped the face she so cleverly made would irritate the owner of that pen name as much as she was. Minutes passed by with no response until finally a response came but not from who she suspected.

_COOKING FURY: LMAO! LOVE THE FACE "A LADY", WELCOME TO THE GROUP. I WAS TOLD THAT IT WAS ORIGINALLY GREEK AS WELL; WHAT DO YOU HAVE_

_TO SAY TO THAT MR. FAIR?_

Belle giggled as she read the response, she felt like she might have found a fellow baklava lover. The next retort from Mr. A.A FAIR succeeded in only getting her fury in high gear once more.

_A.A FAIR : PERHAPS YOU LADIES SHOULD USE_ WIKIPEDIA MORE OFTEN; NOW WOULD BE A GOOD TIME I THINK. :}

Belle slammed down her laptop; smug bastard, she didn't need Wikipedia to tell her anything, and she certainly didn't need any strangers with stupid pen names slamming her beloved books and trying to make her look like an idiot, maybe joining a chat-line hadn't been such a good idea.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Just a little plot bunny hanging on my shoulder and since I had such a cute cover art from Emilie Brown I needed a cute little story to go with it. review and tell me what u think. I know, I know I have too many stories out , but I'm just trying this one on for size. :}


End file.
